Tanzi Tribe
The Tanzi Tribe collectively refers to the humans who descended from a group of six hundred nomads who escaped to the Isonian Isles in the wake of the Sundering. As of 626 K.C. they inhabited seven of the fifteen large islands in the chain and were estimated at numbering over twenty five thousand. The Tanzi have not been a unified people since the War of the Ancients and in the aftermath of the Sundering quickly fell back into small tribal groups. As time went on, the Tanzi tribe eventually split into two main sub-sects, the Dewmar and Trulash with the various tribes swearing themselves to one of the two groups. In the centuries that followed, this split caused another: men, women and children from each tribe broke away and created a new tribe, the Crokar. Society and Culture Language See Language of the Tanzi The language of the Tanzi is simply refered to as Tanza'a (tan-za-e) and is, by the time of the events of the Alternate Draenor over ten thousand years old. As it took around eight hundred years for the Tanzi to develop writing, in the aftermath of the rise of farming, the first recorded words in Tanza'a were farming records and until the split between Dewmar and Trulash it did not progress much beyond that. When the split happened the Trulash, who considered themselves more cultured and literate, began expanding the volume of writings the Tanzi had and over the centuries created hundreds, if not thousands, of books and other pieces of literature. Tanza'a has no grammatical cases, only two forms for a verb to take, a tense prefix system, and incredibly simplistic rules for creating adjectives from nouns and verb stems. Spelling and punctuation forms were optional, decided upon by the preference of the individual speaker "mogyc" and "mogla", for instance, were both correct ways of saying "priority". Chief of Chiefs Since the Tanzi 'Tribe' refers to the entire people of the Tanzi it does not mean that the are one tribe. The Tanzi are hundreds of clans, family groups ranging from ten to over a hundred, that come together to form one common identity. But with their history, even then the Tanzi can be broken down into three sub-sects. The title of "Tanzi" is the common translation of the Tanza'a word "Tanza'farla" meaning 'sole ruler.' The position was the combination of a king, warlord, general and even spiritual leader of the Tanzi people. The role was non-hereditary only a Tanzi deemed worthy could even attempt to lay claim to the title. When the previous Tanzi fell, whether from battle, disease or age, or stepped down, a Tanzi with vision and strength could lay claim to the position. Though, if tthe clans did not accept this individual as their leader, it was their duty, authority and some even claimed destiny to remove the Tanzi and put in place someone who would be considered more favorable. Only at one point in their history, before the Great Flood, were the Tanzi united. It was at that one point that Tanzi the Unifier united the scattered tribes, dozens, if not hundreds of them and by using his words, or by challenging their chieftains he was able to unite all the tribes into one force. The first Chief of Chiefs was larger than life, covered in Truesilver armor, enchanted by Highborne Magi. The Unifier led an army of Tanzi against the demons, and it was during his final battle with Quebon the Lord of Terror that he was slayed, but not before sending the demon lord back to his cursed realm. As this battle ended, the Sundering of Azeroth began, retreating and fleeing south, the Tanzi were eventually able to reach what would become the Isonian Isles and disorganized once more, fell back to their old clans as they attempted to survive in this new land, waiting for a new man or woman to unite the Tanzi. Magic Magic takes the form in clan shamans, each clan would have two actual shamans, a master and an apprentice, and many novices who assisted the clan shamans, once the main shaman of a clan passed away, the apprentice would take their place and take on a new apprentice from the many novices. The form of shaman is not traditional in that they exclusively commune with the elements. These clan shamans communicated with the elements and the dead, they were healers and fighters when needed, but also were druidic in that these druids are very connected to nature. Religion See Religion of the Tanzi The people of the Tanzi are split between two different faiths, both are polytheistic religions but focus on different aspects of life and death. The Faith, associated with mainly the Dewmar, is the first real religion the Tanzi have known, each tribe had their own stories and myths of how the world came to be, but with the unification of the Tanzi by Tanzi the Unifier a new story was created, taking elements from many different tribes. The Faith focuses on the eternal struggle between Dedros and Laton and the fight between progress, activity and growth, versus stagnation, slothfulness and regression. The other religion, the Chosen, focus on a pantheon of gods and goddess and is worshipped primarily by the Trulash. The Chosen looks to the Light of Hawlena for guidance across the world and how demons, undead, and all threats to the world and society of the Trulash is simply because of a lack of Light from the Mother Goddess. Metalworking See Bekaram Since long before the War of the Ancients the Tanzi have been experienced metalworkers. Early on in the days of pre-history, the Tanzi worked and shaped copper and soon after bronze. Diet Sub-Sects Dewmar The Dewmar consider themselves to be the direct descendents of Tanzi the Unifier and are the most warlike and crudest of the Tanzi people. Of the seven isles inhabited by the Tanzi they hold three of them and live, mostly, in the interior of these islands, prefering to use sea craft as little as possible. The Dewmar are also the last sect of the Tanzi to hold onto the secrets of Bekaram metal working. Tanzi from Crokar and Trulash tribes will pay massively to have armor, weapons, tools and more of Bekaram. Trulash The Trulash are the sailors of the Tanzi people, perfecting their craft over thousands of years, those who are Trulash live on three of the seven islands and live mainly in towering coastline cities and towns. The sea is where these Tanzi live and from the resources the world provides them they have created a vast network of trading fleets and ships that once traded with both continents. Trulash traders were seen in ports such as Ratchet, and Menethil Harbor. Crokar The Crokar are an oddity amongst the Tanzi, they live one only one of the seven islands inhabited by the Tanzi and have their towns and villages in the hills of the interior, and on the coastline. The clans that make up the Crokar differ from the others as they choose to seperate from the other two sects to avoid the squabling between them, instead choosing to focus on their family, and their spirituality. The Crokar live peacefully with one another, with some tribes following the Faith and others considering themselves Chosen. History Nomads For hundreds of years after humans immerged on Azeroth, small groups of humans traveled in the southern reaches of the supercontinent Kalimdor, these small groups had a collective identity, known to outsiders as the Tanzi. These Tanzi tribes numbered in the dozens with each of these clans numbering from as little as twenty to as many as a few hundred, and for thousands of years before the Sundering, these clans traveled as nomads. Farming was sporadic, with small scale farming happening for only a season, not a lifetime. To these disorganized tribes farming was not their way of life and they gladly kept to herding large herds of goats and sheep, foraging and hunting to sustain themselves. One thing that set these tribes off from other human tribes across the world, was the extent of metal working. These tribes were incredibly warlike, and because of that the necessity of metal working was incredibly important to the Tanzi. Each tribe had at least three metalsmiths, known as ‘ghorann’ (go-ran) who worked extensively with the ore they called ‘bekaram’ (beh-car-om), which was essentially a reinforced iron that they held a monopoly over, not many outside of the Tanzi knew where it came from or how to work with it, and this was a secret that the Tanzi kept to themselves, even if two Tanzi were from different clans they would easily talk of metalworking or where the Tanzi Iron was mined with each other before they would talk to an outsider. Over time the Tanzi grew, until across the southern reaches of Kalimdor, they numbered over two hundred thousand, across thousands of clans of varying sizes. United The Tanzi for hundreds of years stayed seperated in their clans, traveling the lands of southern Kalimdor until the Burning Legion arrived on Azeroth. Summoned by the Highborne around the Well of Eternity, this new foe threatened the way of life of the Tanzi. Together with an army of thousands behind him, this legendary figure led his people to war against the demons of the Burning Legion. As the War of the Ancients progressed across the world, in the south of Kalimdor the Unifier fought his way to the Well, the Tanzi took no prisoners in their war against the demons and relentlessly fought on, despite losing many. Eventually, the Tanzi reached the outer edges of the Well of Eternity, to them it was a thing of legend, known only as “de Dibuski”, literally ‘the fountain.’ Standing there, in wonder, the Tanzi gathered and watched this massive fount of power send forth demons in the thousands, disheartened by this show of force from the Legion the thousands of Tanzi wavered until the Unifier spoke to his people. Calling for courage in this time of darkness, he led his people away from the Well, saying that even with their Magi they could not stop this and that all they could do was continue to fight and stop the demons while others destroyed the portal. And fight the Tanzi did, still in the region they were in were thousands of demons to be slaughtered and so the great war continued, the Faithful of Dedros against the forces of Laton, and as they fought He was finally revealed to the army of Tanzi. Quebon, the Lord of Terror, showed himself on the battlefield against this army. Standing at nearly one hundred and fifty feet tall and coated in flames and shadow this great demon towered over all. With six massive arms and five fiery eyes this demonic lord was terrifying to behold and many Tanzi fled when they saw this monster enter the battlefield. Yet the Unifier was not afraid, when the hearts of many were darkened, he charged against this demon and in armor of pure Truesilver and Bekaram, enchanted by a Highborne Mage many years before. The Sundering Expansion The Split The Twin's War Unification The Troll Wars Fractured Category:Human Category:Tanzi Tribe Category:Isonian Isles